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Law students will learn to teach and communicate complex legal principles and skills to individuals taking college courses in three correctional facilities in the region.
Course Components
This course has both a community teaching component and a classroom component.
Community Teaching
Students in the practicum will coteach a law related course at Auburn, Cayuga, or Five Points correctional facilities, as part of the Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP), whose mission is to provide high quality higher education in New York State prisons; to help CPEP students build meaningful lives inside prison as well as prepare for successful re-entry into civic life; and to inform thought and action on social justice issues among past and present CPEP students, volunteers, and the wider public.
Accepted students will work with the professor to design a detailed law course syllabus, procure teaching materials, and teach a two-hour class inside one of the prisons once a week for approximately 15 weeks.
Students must travel to and from a correctional facility on a weekly basis with their coteaching partner, at their own expense.
Classroom Component
The classroom component will include reflections on the legal landscape of prisons and the role of education, legal information, libraries, and lawyers in prisons. The classroom component will also include building communication, presentation, teaching, and critical pedagogy skills to teaching rounds. Law students will be challenged to create new activities, assignments, and teaching methods to communicate complex legal principles to nonlawyers in an engaging and informative way.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, law students will be able to
- Create a client-centered environment
- Communicate complex legal principles to community members, clients, and nonlawyers
- Navigate the inequities of legal information in carceral settings
- Critically examine the role of lawyers and the legal system in creating and maintaining the prison industrial complex
- Demonstrate and apply effective cultural competency and trauma-informed practices with clients/students
- Assess their own cultural perspective and the potential for associated biases, and how these shape their professional role
- Practice working and collaborating closely with a partner through pair teaching
About the Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP)
CPEP's mission is to provide high quality higher education in New York State prisons; to help CPEP students build meaningful lives inside prison as well as prepare for successful re-entry into civic life; and to inform thought and action on social justice issues among past and present CPEP students, volunteers, and the wider public.
Applying to the Practicum
Due to the logistics of teaching in prisons, law students must apply and be accepted to the practicum in the early fall. Accepted students are required to go through the following screenings:
- Department of Corrections background check
- Submit a negative TB test result
- Attend a mandatory Department of Corrections orientation prior to spring semester
Accepted law students will also work with Professor Mizutani and CPEP to design a detailed law course syllabus and create or procure casebooks or other course materials to submit to the Department of Corrections for review by November.
Interested law students must apply by sending a statement of interest and resume/CV to Professor Mizutani by September 1 in order to enroll in the practicum for spring.
